Monday, March 14, 2011

I met a nice guy with a dog and a few of his pals during a trip to the SXSW conferences in Austin this weekend.

Turns out the guy was Charlie Annenberg, vice president of the Annenberg Foundation and his dog was Lucky, a retired search and rescue dog trained by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF). Charlie and Lucky were in town to share their films from Explore.org, a project from the Annenberg Foundation that supports humanitarian causes and celebrates the selfless acts of others... including animals.

After loving on handsome Lucky for a few minutes, I noticed Charlie was wearing a "Dog Bless You" t-shirt. "What's that about?" I asked. Charlie said he woke up that morning and had an idea -- actually Lucky inspired the idea -- and since he was at a huge interactive conference, why not pose a challenge to get everyone involved in helping the victims of the disaster in Japan AND help the organization that launched Lucky's search and rescue career too.

Here's what Charlie said:

Charlie challenged SXSW to spread the word and "like" his organization's Dog Bless You page on Facebook. If the goal of 100,000 likes was reached within five days, the Annenberg Foundation would donate $100,000 to the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (SDF).

Sunday night, March 13, that goal was reached, just a little more than 24 hours after the challenge was issued. Now, six canine search and rescue teams have been deployed to Japan to help the recovery efforts and victims of the earthquake and tsunami. The funds raised will help recruit and train more SDF canine disaster search teams.

Lucky thoroughly enjoyed hanging out on the grass
by the river in Austin. Love ya Lucky!

I had the opportunity to witness this challenge unfold in person, frankly because I can't let a dog pass by without petting it. After hearing a little more about Lucky -- rescued by Charlie from a local shelter after he learned Lucky was picked up on the same day his beloved Golden Retriever passed on -- we hung out with Annenberg, Lucky and a few folks from their camp the rest of the day.

Charlie explained how he and Lucky have traveled the globe, helping people and making films to champion the selfless acts of others. An animal lover, Charlie and one of his assistants created Dog Bless You for people who love animals and believe animals improve the human condition.

Thank you Charlie, Lucky and the rest of your team, and the vast community of supporters and dog lovers who rallied for the cause. Your passion is contagious. As Charlie says, "Sometimes when things are done collectively it's more powerful." And this time, it was 100,000 times more powerful.

Note: Keep up with the progress of the SDF canine search and rescue teams on their Facebook and Twitter pages.

2 comments:

In the online bargain world, it's simple to atom signs of louis vuitton replica counterfeit. An commodity in the New York Times, Did Ebay Start A Affected Crackdown? acclaimed that abounding auctions advancing from China, Japan and abounding East Asian countries are affected and not to be trusted. Even if the merchant offers the acquirement receipt, boxes and acceptance papers, it still may not be a accurate product. Packaging can be printed up actual calmly and cheaply, and sales block get awash all the time. The bigger brands adviser Ebay consistently for knock-off commodity through the Vero program. As a result, award a huge abatement on a absolute artist watch is about impossible. After all of these warnings, you may still ambition to buy a replica watch. However, it's apparently not the best idea. The money that you absorb on a affected can be bigger acclimated against a top superior alarm that will last. It's aswell accessible that the acquirement amount will abutment unauthorized, bent activity. After all, the replica watches aboriginal designers becoming annihilation from the purchase, which is not fair. Replica watches are generally accessible and can reflect abominably on the wearer. Rather than authoritative a acceptable impression, a replica watch generally looks tacky. Strive to acquirement top quality, 18-carat articles. Aside from my acquaintance with the lume, which I am abiding is very, actual rare, the capital drawbacks of this watch are as follows: the Valjoux 7750, although reliable and accurate, is of accepted finish. This is not annihilation to do with its performance, but it is a abashment that the appearance through the affectation case aback is not a bit added exciting. The http://www.replicahandbags2u.co.uk rotor weight has been busy with ELYSEE is logo, which is a abundant touch, but the movement is not as highly-finished as the brand is cheaper models but they do use Asian movements as against to Swiss. Secondly, the case, although high-sided and about robust, is alone baptize aggressive to 30 meters. For me, this is not a problem, as I never bathe or battery with a high-value automated watch on my wrist, but for some people, this could be an issue. Thirdly, the bottle is accustomed mineral as against to sapphire. I like an anti-reflective azure on my watches not just for accurate reasons, although it does help!. I am consistently abashed of abrading mineral crystals, but, on the additional side, they are consistently cheaper to alter than sapphires. So my admonition is, if you are traveling to accident it, accomplish abiding you accident it so abominably even a azure would accept shattered. That way you will feel absolutely acceptable about battery out for a replacement. Finally, and a lot of notably, in my opinion, the covering band is just not my cup of tea. I like perforated antagonism straps, I absolutely do, but the superior of this one is inferior to abounding added things on the market. The accepted catch bears the ELYSEE hawkeye logo, which is altogether dimensioned for the rolex replica job. The analysis section I was beatific had a apparent catch on it, so that is why I have not included any photographs of it.